Aligning Your Inline Skate Frames

Some skaters believe that the only way to get better is to focus on technique. But sometimes it's the skate, not the skater, that is slowing you down.

A frequent source of problems is the alignment of the frame on the bottom of the skate boot. Misaligned frames can cause various problems, including pronation and lack of power.

Frame alignment is an individual matter. What's good for one skater won't work for the next. But there's no mystery to optimal frame alignment. The secret is to align your frames directly beneath the pressure points on the bottom of your feet.

Follow these steps to position your skate frames for maximum control and power:

1) Identify your pressure points

The goal is to feel as stable on your skates as you do in your street shoes. To accomplish this, you must find the places on the bottom of your feet — your pressure points — where you apply the greatest force to the ground.

When you lean back too far in your skates, your toes tend to rise up, causing your shins muscles to flex and eventually cramp. This is what usually causes shins to lock up.

One solution is to lean further forward, so that your toes are no longer rising off the bottom of your boots. But look out. Leaning forward can damange your technique, and lead to all kinds of problems, including toe-pushing!

Instead of leaning forward, try placing shims in the back of your skates. This will raise your heels and get your toes down, taking the strain off your shins.

Shimming your skates is easy. Just buy some plastic washers (about 1/8 of an inch thick) and position them between the back of your boots and frames.

How to Buy Inline Skates

By Steve Larios

They're all so beautiful ... but you've only got two feet!photo: Asphalt Beach

People walk into my shop every day looking for the wrong pair of inline skates.

Weekend warriors want 110mm speed skates even though they've never skated before. Kids ask for hockey skates even though they want to skate the rails at the skate park. And then there was the mom, a newbie skater, who wanted pink Vaypors (and matching pink wheels) to push a jogging stroller.

The truth is that with so many skates to choose from these days, it can be hard to find the one that's right for you.

But don't get intimidated by all the choices. Answer the questions below and you'll find the right pair of skates in no time.

1) What's Your Purpose?

The first question we ask our customers is, "What type of skating are you planning to do? " That question often stops people in their tracks; they often just say, "inline." But skates have become i...

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